One of the most common concerns I hear from parents who are attempting gentle parenting isn't whether they're doing this, that, or the other thing right. Although we all have questions about how to manage certain aspects of gentle parenting, it's not usually the daily how-to's that make us consider throwing in the towel. One of […]

There's a little boy in Teacher Tom's multi-age summer school whose name isn't Jimmy, but I'm saying it is to protect his privacy. Jimmy is quite little, as in, he still has to wear a sticker on his back that reads, "Please take me to the bathroom at 2 p.m." He can't be any older than his […]

From the backseat of the car, my daughter asked me to tell her a story. Since we were on the way to her annual well child exam, I wondered if she was seeking a virtual role play in which the heroine of my story would be on her way to the doctor, too. So, sure […]

We were every cliché: she spilled her milk all over the table and was using her fingers to spread it into a big and messy design; I was already waaaay late making dinner. I was feeling anxious and frustrated, and struggling to be mindful of the positive parenting ideas from part one of this article. (Yep, I'm […]

After finishing a two-week, multi-age summer class with Teacher Tom, who's an internationally respected teacher and writer, I asked my child what she thought he was really good at. She pondered my question for a moment and thoughtfully replied, "He's really good at sitting."  Well, shoot. At the risk of bragging, I'm a fine sitter, myself. Now that I know […]

We've all had that class—the one we were required to take to fill some requirement, but had absolutely no interest in taking. For me, it was a summer class during grad school. It was called "Miscommunication," and I agreed--it must've been some incredible misunderstanding that I wasn't at the beach. However, as much as it […]

Ice cream for breakfast; impromptu gifts; cookies for lunch; no responsibilities ever; cake for dinner...oops...hold on...that's my wish list, and I'm supposed to be writing about kids. A lot of people think positive parenting means giving children everything they ask for (i.e., permissive parenting). If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that, I'd be […]

When I had my daughter, everyone told me how quickly the time would pass—that I should “cherish every moment,” whatever that meant. Indeed, she’s now on the brink of turning 5. Although some moments have felt like they’d last forever—usually the less-than-pleasant ones—I can only assume that some sort of time warp has propelled us […]

I’d like to think my mental pace most Decembers has been the serene speed of “O Holy Night,” calm and angelic, rendering me capable of mid-afternoon waltzes around the Christmas tree with my young daughter in my arms. More often than not, though, my brain has buzzed around in a chaotic “Feliz Navidad”-in-warp-speed mode. Less […]

Back on the farm when Ma was delivering babies while milking the cow and shucking the corn (we've always been multi-taskers), she certainly wasn't reading up on what the type of birth the (then-nonexistent) Internet was telling her she should have. Instead, she relied on what worked for others for thousands upon thousands of years before […]